XV.] MOUNTAINS AS SIGNALLING STATIONS. 329
From Ida to the crag, that Hennes loves,
Of Lemnos; thence unto the steep sublime
Of Athos, throne of Zeus, the broad blaze flared.
Thence, raised aloft to shoot across the sea,
The moving light, rejoicing in its strength,
Sped from the pyre of pine, and urged its way,
In golden glory, like some strange new sun,
Onward, and reached Macistus' watching heights.
There, with no dull delay nor heedless sleep,
The watcher sped the tidings on in turn,
Until the guard upon Messapius* peak
Saw the far flame gleam on Euripus' tide,
And from the high-piled heap of withered furze
Lit the new sign and bade the message on.
Then the strong light, far-flown and yet nndimmed,
Shot thro' the sky above Asopus* plain,
Bright as the moon, and on Cithaeron's crag
Aroused another watch of flying fire.
And there the sentinels no whit disowned
But sent redoubled on, the hest of flame-
Swift shot the light, above Gorgopis' bay,
To Aegiplanctus' mount; and bade the peak
Fail not the onward ordinance of fire.
And like a long beard streaming in the wind,
Full-fed with fuel, roared and rose the blaze,
And onward flaring, gleamed above the cape,
Beneath which shimmers the Saronic bay,
And thence leapt light unto Arachne's peak,
The mountain watch that looks upon our town.
Thence to th' Atrides' roof—in lineage fair,
A bright posterity of Ida's fire.
So sped from stage to stage, fulfilled in turn,
Flame after flame, along the course ordained,
And lo! the last to speed upon its way
Sights the end first, and glows unto the goal1.'
The stations of the fire-beacons which are mentioned in this
passage are (i) -Mt Ida, to the southward of the Plain of Troy
(57S° ft-)* (2) Mt. Hermaeus, the north-eastern promontory of
Lemnos; (3) Mt. Athos, the most conspicuous point in the north
of the Aegean (6350 ft.); (4) Mt. Macistus in the north-west of
Euboea (3967 ft); (5) Mt. Messapius, on the coast of Boeotia
opposite Chalcis (3363 ft.) j (6) Mt. Cithaeron, which separates that
1 Aesch. Ag. 281—314 (Morshead's translation).